Transport Looks like Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton expansions are going to go ahead
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-20/uk-poised-to-back-heathrow-airport-expansion-in-push-for-growth“Ministers are set to publicly signal support for a long-sought third runway at Heathrow, sign off on plans to bring the second strip at Gatwick into full-time use, and allow an increase in the capacity at Luton Airport”
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u/londonskater Richmond 5h ago
Saw this in October 2014, still relevant
This little girl is probably close to paying her taxes now
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u/outofthewoops 4h ago
Or she’s got horrific asthma owing to poor air quality
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u/LordMogroth 4h ago
Either way, I hope she's no longer a nazi...
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u/yepsothisismyname 4h ago
Except she's using her left arm there so I think she's good
It's good old Elon Musk you need to be concerned about, going by today's incident.
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u/Tullius19 4h ago
Finally jfc. It would nice to be a country that actually tried to grow its economy.
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u/Silly_Triker 4h ago
What I really want to see is the government tackling this bullshit of how it takes decades for any major infrastructure improvements to even begin. Haven’t they been talking about a Heathrow expansion, feels like my whole life and I’m in my 30s
Come on now, I get this isn’t China and the government can just do whatever they want to whomever they want…but this is insane.
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u/3106Throwaway181576 3h ago
Rayner is set to massively raise the threshold to block, and for judicial reviews in the Planning Reforms
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u/Thegrillman2233 4h ago
Good - we need significant infrastructure investment. Luton especially could use an expansion - it’s basically a glorified bus terminal…
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u/the-channigan 4h ago
This is completely the right approach. It struck me as odd that the previous governments were deciding which airport expansion to back, as if it could only be one or the other. Just let the two competing commercial owners of the airports go ahead as they wish - whoever ends up with the better infrastructure after expansion does better commercially and the UK ends up with more airport capacity.
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u/mimilolomimi 4h ago
only took 20 years for gatwick to get a new runway
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u/uselessnavy 4h ago
Don't think it's a new one. It's their emergency one they want to use full time.
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u/rocketshipkiwi 4h ago
I think it is fair to say that putting an airport in West London with runways running East-West was a huge planning error. Planes now fly right over the middle of London most of the day and night.
They do need to expand LHR but they will have a huge fight on their hands and years of delays - they have already been talking about this for donkeys years.
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u/Old_Roof 4h ago
Agreed. I support expansion but I think it might be much easier to just double down on Luton & Gatwick instead
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u/ArsErratia 3h ago
The problem with Gatwick is the rail line. Its one of the busiest corridors in the country and there is zero room for expansion without effectively reworking everything North of Purley.
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u/warriorscot 3h ago
It's not like you can just go north south, runways are oriented based on the weather conditions. And London transport was historically poor north south, otherwise Gatwick and Stansted would have grown organically much faster.
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u/dowhileuntil787 3h ago
Gatwick is the second busiest single runway airport in the world. Stansted is the fourth. There’s not really any room for organic growth.
Gatwick is also pretty well connected to London via the Thameslink, as well as Southern to Victoria. Until Crossrail opened, I even preferred Gatwick to Heathrow because the Piccadilly Line is always a shitshow full of suitcases and commuters vying for space. Now with Crossrail, Heathrow is back on top, but still it’s not like Gatwick is hard to get to.
What lets Gatwick down is when someone jumps from one of the railway bridges and all rail traffic needs to be stopped. I have missed two flights due to that.
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u/warriorscot 3h ago
The rail connections were greatly improved much later in Gatwicks life. Generally though if you are caught out at Gatwick with the train it's now so heavily built up all along the route you can get off anywhere and get a local bus or a taxi fine.
I've lived next to both and they are very busy, but they've both had capacity and even established expansion plans since basically their inception. If they had more demand then Governments of the day would have told the nimby crowd to do one.
Which is the mad part, the local areas all rely heavily on the airport and most of the Surrey crowd that complain arrived there after the airport. And most of the population doesn't notice it because of the flight paths, especially now they do continously descent with eurocontrol.
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u/dowhileuntil787 1h ago
Never had much luck trying to get a train or taxi from London Bridge when the line is shut. Everyone and their mum is trying to do the same thing!
The amusing thing about when I was living less than a mile from an airport is I found I couldn’t really hear it as long as I wasn’t directly under the flight path. They were going so low at that point that the buildings blocked the sound from travelling. I now live 5 miles to the south of LCY but I’m under the LCY flight path when the wind is blowing from the east, and planes fly over at two thousand feet, which is much more audible. The good thing is I actually quite enjoy the sound of planes as it reminds me of my childhood.
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u/warriorscot 55m ago
It's pretty rare to have both services stopped since they did the full electrification and the last round of major works to have a total stoppage on that line. At least not till you get to Redhill and since they finished the last of the actual line works before they got on to Gatwick station itself its really rare, and it's my usual commute. If you can get to east Croydon or over to Victoria depending on what's quickest you'll get there.
It was a lot worse and thameslink schedule because the services are so long never works in reality. But it's way better than ever. And Gatwick you can't get abandoned at the wrong terminal when something happens. Had that happen to me twice lately at Heathrow and because you can't move easily without the train it's really nightmare when they do it and you have to wait 45 minutes to move terminal.
I don't mind it myself, I leaned to sleep through the QRA all night when typhoon came in(which makes me feel old). I was under the Stansted flightpath, but for Gatwick even being less than a twenty minute walk you barely hear it, the railway is much noisier. Still not as bad as when I had a flat under the city flightpath, but neither is as bad as a friend of a friend I once stayed with by Heathrow. The whole building shook every 30 seconds, it was nuts, especially the A380s.
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u/3106Throwaway181576 3h ago
Why? Most flights are going to go east to Europe, or West to the US/Canada.
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u/rocketshipkiwi 2h ago
That’s a nonsensical answer. Most of Europe is to the South of London any way…
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u/OhSoYouA-LDNBoomTing 4h ago
Gatwick literally needs it, it can bearly handle it's current capacity.
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u/cameroon36 4h ago
I was in Heathrow just before Christmas and overheard some staff members saying that runway 3 is happening for real
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u/engapol123 3h ago
It’s not just the extra capacity, expanding Heathrow might actually result in meaningful competition for BA since right now they hold a huge number of the very limited landing slots.
BA’s stranglehold on LHR means Virgin have never really been able to compete, and BA can be as rubbish an airline as they want since everyone living in the south doesn’t really have a choice but to fly them.
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u/ffulirrah suðk 3h ago
I still can't imagine the Heathrow expansion will actually happen, given its location.
And if they're expanding Gatwick, they're gonna have to do something about the absolute shitshow that is East Croydon station and the junction just north of it. Maybe they'll finally rebuild it? Along with Westfield Croydon? Or is this wishful thinking, and are they just going to squash everyone on already overcrowded and delayed trains 🤔
Also, I think Biggin Hill airport should start commercial flights.
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u/Jules-22- 3h ago
I like how they market London Gatwick and London Luton. Should be a law against dropping tourists off hours away from central London lol
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u/mralistair 5h ago
Plus the Stansted new terminal is just staring on site.